TRENTON (1010 WINS) – Gov. Phil Murphy wrote President Joe Biden on Friday to express “growing concern” over numerous drone sightings and to request “more resources...to understand what is behind this activity,” as Gov. Kathy Hochul said drone sightings in New York are also being investigated, and elected leaders on Staten Island demanded more answers at a press conference that alluded to the sci-fi movie "War of the Worlds."
Reports of the drones in New Jersey airspace first emerged on Nov. 18 and have since ballooned to thousands of sightings—both confirmed and unconfirmed—in the weeks since. Reported sightings have spread to New York, including Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.
Hochul addressed the New York sightings in an X post on Friday, writing, "We know New Yorkers have spotted drones in the air this week & we are investigating. At this time, there’s no evidence that these drones pose a public safety or national security threat."
Hochul said the state is coordinating with federal partners to "protect New Yorkers."
In his two-page letter to Biden, Murphy said, “I write with growing concern about reports of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in and around New Jersey airspace.”
The governor said that as drone technology has grown in popularity, it’s “introduced additional risks to public safety, privacy, and homeland security” that state and local law enforcement are not totally able to address because they’re “hamstrung by existing laws and policies” that leave “action around UAS squarely on the shoulders of the federal government.”
Murphy went on to thank U.S. Homeland Security and the FBI for their communication and work on the issue, while adding “it has become apparent that more resources are needed to fully understand what is behind this activity.”
“The continued reporting of UAS activity has raised more questions than answers and prompted an outcropping of conspiracy theories across social media and other platforms,” the governor wrote.
Murphy wants federal agencies to work together “until they uncover answers as to what is behind the UAS sightings.” He said New Jersey State Police and the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness ready to assist.
The White House said Thursday that a review of the reported sightings shows that many of them are actually manned aircraft being flown lawfully. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said there were no reported sightings in any restricted airspace. He said the U.S. Coast Guard has not uncovered any foreign involvement from coastal vessels.
“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus,” Kirby said, echoing previous statements from the Pentagon, as well as Murphy.
The lack of concrete answers has frustrated local officials, including the Warren County Police Chiefs Association, which said this week "we have all seen a multitude of drones flying over our critical infrastructure, homes and businesses."
U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, of New Jersey, said on X Friday that he went out with local police to look for drones Thursday night and saw aircraft with flashing lights that appeared to be drones at Round Valley Reservoir in Hunterdon County. He posted multiple videos, saying, “We clearly saw several that would move horizontally and then immediately switch back in the opposite direction in maneuvers that plane can’t do.”
Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use but are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said Thursday he was frustrated by the lack of transparency, adding it could help spread fear and misinformation. “We should know what’s going on over our skies,” the senator said.
On Friday, Murphy also wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Corey Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to encourage Congress to "pass legislation empowering state and local law enforcement entities to use advanced detection and mitigation technologies to deal with UAS."
Murphy sent the letters the same day that leaders on Staten Island held a press conference urging the federal government to do more to unearth the source of the drones, an answer that has so far remained elusive.
“The people of Staten Island deserve answers, the people of this city, region and state deserve answers of what the heck is going on,” Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said, as he joined U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and other leaders at Fort Wadsworth to call on the NYPD to probe the sightings.
Fossella said hundreds of constituents have reached out and his neighbor even sent him a video recently of “whatever it is flying over our house.”
“And yet we’re told 'don’t believe what you see,'” he said. “It’s shocking to us that here we are almost a month later—3,000 sightings; drones, unmanned aircraft—and our folks don’t have an answer.”
“We’re calling on NYPD and others to get involved, get aggressive, figure out what these things are and help at least alleviate some of the frustration, anxiety that many people share,” Fossella said.
Officials said there had been recent reports of drones over not only Staten Island neighborhoods but infrastructure and assets like the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the Goethals Bridge, Fort Wadsworth and container ports.
Tony Garcia, a retired NYPD officer who works for Malliotakis, captured an image of one near the Verrazzano Bridge on Thursday night. He said the drones he saw had blinking lights. “They’re pretty high, some of them are large. I saw quite a few of them last night. And they’re mostly in this water area,” he said.
Malliotakis called it “outrageous” that “thousands of drones and unmanned aerial systems [are] flying above us and our government is not telling us who’s operating them.”
She said she thinks more is known and urged the government “to be straight with us and tell us what is going on.”
The congresswoman said some sightings may be legitimate manned aircraft, but others are clearly not: “Some are very obvious that they’re drones and they’re operating at a very low altitude.”
Malliotakis said it doesn’t appear the drones are recreational or commercial in nature and believes they are either “our government” or “a foreign government.”
Comparing the panic to the 2005 film “War of the Worlds,” which was filmed on Staten Island 20 years ago, she said residents “feel like we’re characters in that movie.”
On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said they are not U.S. military drones.
And in a joint statement issued Thursday afternoon, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said they and their federal partners, in close coordination with the New Jersey State Police, “continue to deploy personnel and technology to investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings.”
The agencies said they have not corroborated any of the reported sightings with electronic detection, and that reviews of available images appear to show many of the reported drones are actually manned aircraft.
“There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space,” according to the statement.
The number of sightings has increased in recent days, though officials say many of the objects seen may have been planes rather than drones. It’s also possible that a single drone has been reported more than once.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.